The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-21
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
REV. TALMAGE SAYS THERE is A
FASHION IN sERMONICS.

BROOKLYN, Nov. 20.--Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage, D, D., opened the service at the
Tabernacle this morning by giving out tho
hymn beginning;
Should coming days be cold and dark.
we need not cease our singing;
That perfect rest nought can modest
Where golden haTps are ringing"
He then explained passage in the Gospel
of st. Matthew, concerning the inferior
kind of salt that was cast cut to AXE walks
OF, to be troddep under foot Of men The
subject of DR.. TalmsgeNs discourse was:
The Gospel Of Health" and his text from
Proverbs vii, %: "Tin a dart strike
through his liver" He said:
There Is fashion in sernonics. A com
paratively small part of the Bible is called
on for texts. Most of the passages of Scrip
ture, when announced at the opening II
sermons, Immediately divide themselves
into old discussions that we have heard
from boyhood, and the effect on us is sopcr-
ific. The auditor guesses at the start just
what the preacher will say There are very
important chapters aud verses that have
never been preached from. Much OF my
lifetime am devoting TO unlocking thess
gold chests and blasting open these quar-
rleS We talk about the heart, and preach
about the heart, and sing about the hsait,
but II you refer to tue physical organ that
we call the heart 1t has not half 50 much 10
do with spiritual health or disease, moral
eXaltation or spiritual depression, as the
organ to the consideration Of which Selo-
mon calls us in the text, when he describes
sin progressing ''till dart strike through
his liver"
Solomons anatomical and physiological
discoveries were so very great that he was
nearly turee thousand years ahead OF the
scientists OF his day. He, more than one
thousand years before Christ, sesned 70
know about the circulat on Of the blood.
which Harvey discovered sixteen hundred
and nineteen years after Christ, for when
Solomon in Ecclesiastes, describing the
human body, speaks of the pitcher at the
fountain, he evidently means the three
canals leading from the heart that receive
the blood like pitchers When he speales in
Ecclesiastes of the silver cord of life, he evil
IDENTIFY means the spinal marrow, about
which in our day Doctors Mayo. and Csr-
penter, and Dalton, and Flint, and Brown
Sequard have experimented. And So.oaion
recorded in the Bible thousands of years BE-
fore scientists discovered it, that in his time
the spinal cord relaxed in old age, produc-
ing the tremors of hand and head; 'Or the
silver cord be loosed" "
In the text he reveals the fact that be had
studied that largest gland Of the human sye-
tenn, the liver, not by the electric light Of
the modern dissecting room, but by the dim
light of comparatively daDk age, and Yet
had seen its important functions in the God
built castle OF the human body, its selecting
and secroting power, its curious cells, its
elongated, branching tubes. divine work
manship IN central and right and left lobe,
aud the hepat'c artery through which God
conducts the crimson tides. Oh, this vital :
organ is like The eye Of God In that it never
sleeps. Solomon knew of Ii and had noticed
either in vivisection CT poSt-mortem what
awful attacks sin and dissipation make upon
it, until with the fat Of Almighty God it
bids the body ant oul separate, and the one
it commands to the grave, and the other it
sends to Judgment. A javelin of retritu-
tion, not glancing off ar making O slight
wound, but piercing it from side to side
It'll the dart strike Through the liver"
Galen and Hippocrates ascribe to the liver
the most of the worlds moral depression,
and the word melancholy means black
bile.
preach to you this morning the Gospel
of Health In taking diagnosis Of the dis
eases OF the soul you must also take the
diagnosis of the diseases OF the body. As If
to recognize this, ono whole book OF the
New Te5tement was written by a physician
Luke was doctor aad be discourses much
Of physical effects, and he tells of the good
SamarItaD's medication Of the wounds by
pouring IN oil and wine aud recognizes
hunger as a hlndrance 10 hearing the Gospel,
so that the five thouS@ad were fed ana
records the sparse diet Of the prodigal away
from home, and the extinguished eyesighf
OF the beggar by the wayside, and lets us
know Of the hemorrhage Of the wounds of
the dying Christ and the nlraeu-
lous postmortem resuscitatlon. And any
estimate OF the spiritual condition that does
not include also an estimate of the physical
fa s,...<. lnf.
keeper Of Congress fell dead from excessive
joy because Burgoyne had surrendered at
Saratoga, and Philip the Fifth OF Spain
dropped dead at the news of his country's
defeat in battle. and Cardinal Wolssy ex-
pire1 as result of Henry the Eighth anath-
ema, 1t was demonstrated that the body
and soul are Slamese twins, and when you
the other. We might as well recognize the
tremendous fact that there are two mighty
fortresses in the human body, the heart aud
the Ii or; the heart, the fortress OF all the
graces, the liver, the fortress Of all the
furies. You may have the head filed with all
intellectualities, and the ear with all musical
appreciation and the mouth with all elo-
queuce, and the hand with all industries,
and the heart with all generosities and yet
"a dart strike through the liver"
First, let Christian people avoid the mis-.
take that they are all wrong with God be-
cause they suffer from depression OF spirits.
Many a consecrated man has found his
spiritual sky befogged, and bis hope OF
heaven blotted out, and himself plunged
chin deep in the slough Of despond, and has
said; my heart is not right with God, and
think | must have made mistake. and
instead of being a child of light l am
COLD of darkness. No one can feel as
gloomy as feel and be Christian And
he has gone to his minister for consolation.
and he has collected Flavel's books, and
Cecils books, and Baxtar's books, and read
and read and read, and prayed
and prayed and prayed, and wept
and wept and wept, and groaned
and groaned and groauod. Ny brother,
your trouble is not with the heart, it is a
gastric disorder or rebellion Of the liver.
You need physician more than you do
clergyman. II is not sin that hlotS out your
hope of heaven. but bile 1t not only yel-
lows your eyebell, and furs your tongue
and makes your head ache, but sweeps upon
your soul In objections and forebodings
The devil is after you. He has failed TO
despoil your character, and he does the NEXT
best thing for him--he rufties your peace OF
mind. When fe says that you are not
forgiven soul. when he says that you are
not right with God, when he says that you
will never get to heaven, he lies. You are
just as sure OF heaven as though you were
there already But Satan finding that he